IA Summit 2018 Recap: Convergence reflections

This was my first and last IA Summit, but that’s purely due to exciting news. The IA Summit will henceforth be the IA Conference. Along with that change comes a change in responsibility as ASIS&T will no longer be underpinning the conference. Instead, the IA Conference will be truly by and for those in the field, and entirely volunteer-run.

Conference co-chair Stuart Maxwell opened this year with a truism, “The field is deep and wide, and the problems are fascinating and wicked.” And from that deep and wide field with fascinating and wicked problems, key themes emerged during the conference.

Don’t complicate what was once simple, but do make simple what shouldn’t be complicated.

Alberta Soranzo shared in Our Eternal (Digital) Afterlife that in England you only have to tell the government once that someone died rather than contacting each separate department. A prime example of what shouldn’t be complicated.

In England they think about the government’s role for people in a very different way. “Tell us once” is a service that means when someone dies you only have to tell the government once – not call every single department to tell them #IAS18

The core problem, though, is that problems don’t often stand still long enough to solve them.

Ethical practice is your responsibility

A prevalent theme among IA Summit contributors ethics was discussed, from many different angles. “You’re in the room. You’re hearing this. This is now your job,” is how Diana Deibel and Ilana Shalowitz put it.

• We need to understand shortcuts people make and make the right answer for them the easiest one — the one that’s better for the person, not better for the company.
• Structuring information — the base of what we do as IAs and UXers — is meaning-making and should be ethically considered.
• New modes require new approaches and considerations in ethics (AI, voice, VR, haptics, etc.)

“The most likely point of failure is the end users, those affected by this change, so start there. Evaluate the harm,” as shared in the Ethics Roundtable.

Community, stakeholders and stockholders — in that order.

Most likely point of failure is the end users, those affected by this change, so start there. Evaluate the harm. Can move horizontally or vertically through the model. #reframeia#ias18

“Bias is equally distributed but power and privilege are not. If we don’t continue to challenge it we won’t get anywhere.” – Karen VanHouten

We all have different biases. “Always ask: who’s here? Who isn’t? Are we okay with that being the case?” as posed by Diana Deibel and Ilana Shalowitz in their ethics session. Their three questions to consider in ethical voice design:

Why are we including or excluding these users?

How are we protecting our user’s security and privacy?

What information are we sharing with the user and why?

Deibel and Shalowitz encouraged the use of responsibility statements, to be shared with others both in your company and the broader community. These should not just list the benefits but discuss the trade-offs you made to include the features you chose. Don’t be afraid to defend your decision, but also don’t be afraid to question it.

“Difference is the new normal that we should be designing for.” – Elise Roy

“When I was a lawyer, I was advocating for people with disabilities to be treated the same. As a designer, I say to heck with that! We ARE different. And difference is the new normal we should be designing for.” –@EliseRoy#a11y#IAS18

Not every disability is visible. 15% of people have trouble with telling left from right. Telling them to look for something at the top left corner of the screen is not helpful.

So many accessibility factors to take into account when designing. 15% of people have trouble with telling left from right. Telling them to look for something at the top left corner of the screen: not so good. #IAS18

Combine viewpoints in a cooperative, not a competitive way, for best results.

To build confidence, focus on establishing psychological safety. Encourage empathy, focus on rewarding cooperation over competition. The more mistakes they make, the more successful they are. Psychological safety ENCOURAGES SUCCESS. #ias18

To collaborate, create a diverse team with a shared understanding of goals and collectively generating solutions. Establish psychological safety; include cultures, perspectives, practices, and products.

If everyone looks through their own lens and then discusses it, we can reach agreement about our experiences. We decide who to ask, and we interpret the results. We decide what to leave out as outliers. If we’re not diverse groups we may not make good choices #IAS18

Information architecture is an often misunderstood job title. Are they designers? developers? managers? All of the above? In this article we'll discuss what information architecture is, why it's related to usability, and what are the common tools/programs used in information architecture.